Vivian Swift Which of all my important nothings shall I tell you first? (Jane Austin, in a letter to her sister)

December 2009

This is the house on the corner of MacDougall Street and Bingham Avenue, about six blocks from my house on Long Island. I would be happy to live across the street from this house just so I could look out my livingroom window and see this Wonder Wall every day.

You know what also makes me happy? Knowing that I have the BEST readers out there: it makes me happy to read all your Comments, especially because you have moose walking up to your front porch , and have entertained at the USO, and had a childhood in Africa, and you have the Rocky Mountains in your backyard, and you live in England .

Thank You, everyone who Comments. And Thank You everyone who reads and don’t remind me that I am the least interesting person etc.

I am always trying to make my blog better and for 2010 I have a few ideas that I’ll be throwing up for discussion. But that’s for future posts (suggestions are welcomed)– for today I am leaving you with this picture of the front of my house the morning after the Great Blizzard of ’09 because it makes me happy that Top Cat painted the whole shebang this Summer to make one of my life’s dearest wishes come true: I now live in my own yellow house.

With coral-tone shutters and lime green doors (the house has two front doors: this is the old one , which came with the original front porch 100 years ago) because I’ve also always wanted to live in a house that has New Orleans colors.

P.S. I live on a street with a lot of 100-year old houses. Those lime-green doors didn’t go over all that well with the neighbors.

Angus, the Airedale in the middle (above), lives on a 70-acre estate [old farmland with woods and a pond] in upstate New York. He has been waging a valiant battle to recover from injuries that he sustained three weeks ago, probably from a hunter’s high powered rifle — it took Angus three days to crawl home, wounded as he was. He has been undergoing treatment from the finest vets in the county and recuperating at home in the care and love of his beloved human companion and his “pack”, Malcom and Lily (above). Back in the vet’s office for follow-up care, while being administered routine anesthesia for more surgery, Angus’s heart, as big and as brave as it was, just gave out; he died yesterday afternoon.

We all who knew Angus and knew his fearless, hardy, adventuresome, and loving spirit, and all of us who had been in awe of his stout-heartedness and serenity during these past few weeks, all of us who were inspired and comforted by his determination to remain the leader and soul of his pack, are devasted. He was a good dog. He was family.